Garden, July 29

My garden continues to show its vigor. I was a bit late with sowing sunflower seeds this year. They’ve steadily climbed skyward, but I was beginning to fear that they would not bloom in time. This week I was relieved to see some sunflower buds. I planted several varieties this year, including Teddy Bear, Lemon Queen, and Autumn Beauty (all of these seeds were Mother’s Day gifts I received, by the way). I also sowed a few mammoth Russian sunflower seeds, the dollar store classic with huge blooms, but it appears that none of those seeds germinated. All three of the large sunflower plants in my garden look to be multi-bloomers, and the mammoth Russian devotes all of its energy to one bloom per plant.